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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26784454">One Point Six Millimeter Barrier</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clorixi/pseuds/Clorixi'>Clorixi</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fruits Basket</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Comfort No Hurt, F/M, Fluff without Plot, Tohru has the Zodiac Curse, author spells it 'kyo', complicated feelings about the person you have a crush on technically being an animal and also naked, curse-swap au, hugging as a replacement for actually talking about your problems, other sohmas mentioned by name only, speedrun the hurt and skip straight to comfort, touchstarved</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 05:34:50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,295</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26784454</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clorixi/pseuds/Clorixi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Tohru keeps taking advantage of her curse to avoid dealing with her human problems.</p><p>Which, fair, he'd do it too if he could, but Kyo really can't handle this whole 'holding your crush on a weekly basis' thing anymore. </p><p>If even she's technically a cat when he does.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Honda Tohru/Sohma Kyou</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>49</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Local Teenager Is Better With Cats Than With Pretty Girls</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Instead of writing the actual meat of my curse-swap au, I wrote a fluffy ficlet. That's.. perfectly on-brand for me. </p><p>For at least a little context, this is an AU where Tohru has the Zodiac Curse and the Sohma's are a temple family that happen to be closely related to the Zodiac. Instead of being activated by gender, the curse pops off when Tohru hugs anyone, and she turns into their zodiac animal instead of her own.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>It’s one of those rare days that everyone is out of the house but him. Kyo’s not sure what Yuki and Shigure are doing, and he doesn’t really care beyond hoping it will keep them out for a while. Tohru, he knows, is at the job she insisted on keeping, and will be home in time for dinner. That’s definitely not why he volunteered to cook today. He just decided it was his turn. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’s in the middle of setting the timer on the rice cooker when the front door opens. He knows without turning around that Tohru is home early: partially because Shigure never enters quietly, partially because of his increased awareness of her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Not that he’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>aware</span>
  </em>
  <span> of her in any special way, though he sort of is, it’s just she’s the Bearer of the Curse (in capitals, even) and he can’t not be aware of her when she’s nearby. It doesn’t hurt that her general aura was gentle and bright, and feeling it was similar to basking in a sunbeam, warm and all-encompassing, and that sounds uncomfortably close to something he has decided to not think about, so.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So now that he’s deliberately suppressing his sense of her, he barely has the chance to turn and say “hello” before Tohru tips forward and falls bonelessly into his arms. He reacts without thinking,arms coming up to support and pull her closer, and then </span>
  <em>
    <span>upwards </span>
  </em>
  <span>as smoke fills the air and her weight shifts from human to cat. Her clothes slough off around his arms like magic to pile carelessly on the floor. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kyo finds himself with an armful of cat. This isn’t really how he was expecting his evening to go. It’s a good thing that he just finished setting the rice cooker, because he doesn’t think he’ll be getting back to prepping dinner anytime soon.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tohru?” he asks in lieu of a real question, but she just tucks her head against his chest and doesn’t respond. He looks around the room for answers.There aren’t any to be found. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>With no other ideas, he opts to sit down right there on the kitchen floor. Tohru curls in his lap, eyes shut and shaking slightly. Kyo wracks his brain, but he doesn’t think today’s date has any significance attached to it. He hadn’t caught her expression when she walked in either, so he’s well and truly lost as to why he has a lapful of cat. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’s not entirely opposed to it, it’s just. Context. It was nice to have, sometimes, given that Kyo has a bad track record with unexpected situations. He has a worse record of responding well to the surprising things Tohru says and does, but he’s been working on that. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her discarded shirt laying right next to him is not helping him with that at all. He eyes it with carefully maintained indifference. Then he drags his eyes away from it to stare at Tohru instead. He’s seen her cat form before, during that disastrous first meeting, but he’s kind of blocked as much of that memory out as he can, so he takes advantage of the moment to take it in.   </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’s a big cat, that’s for sure. It might have been a feature of the curse, but then some breeds of cat get fairly big, so it was hard to say. She didn’t look like any one breed, anyway. Tohru was a long-haired tortoiseshell cat, all shades of brown woven through her fur in a striking pattern. It’s a little surprising, since her hair seems to be one consistent shade of light brown. Tohru shifts, and Kyo realizes he’d been scratching behind her ear, as if she was one of the many strays that gathered around him on the school roof. He stops immediately, face burning.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They sit there on the floor in silence, and with every minute that ticked by the situation felt more surreal. He can feel the frantic energy building up in him, the kind that makes him snap at her when he doesn’t really mean to, and he pushes it back down firmly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s hard to do around the weird feeling that’s been building in his chest about Tohru being in his lap. He pushes those feelings aside too, because she’s a </span>
  <em>
    <span>cat </span>
  </em>
  <span>right now. Yes, Tohru is in his lap, but she’s also a cat and that’s fine for cats.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Finally,</span>
  <em>
    <span> finally,</span>
  </em>
  <span> she distracts him from his thoughts by breaking the silence, but it’s with a pitiful kitten sniff that does not help his already frazzled nerves. His hands flutter above her with the need to, he doesn’t know? Pet her again, but wouldn’t that be kind of rude? She’s a person not a cat, but he also just spent time convincing himself of her cat-ness, so maybe he should? His hands are bobbing awkwardly above her head, and he doesn’t know where to put them down. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She seems unaware of his torment, which is probably for the best. Tohru sniffs once more, then says, “Sorry,” and almost immediately in an even sadder tone, “and sorry that I’m sorry.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Which doesn’t really explain anything at all, but is such a ridiculous Tohru thing to say that it manages to break through his own issues and get him to focus on hers instead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He lets one hand fall carefully across her back, just holding it there. It was the right call, because she arches slightly into it. “Don’t apologize when I don’t even know why you’re doing it.” he says. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kyo thinks she isn’t going to answer, but after a few moments of silence she admits “I had a bad day.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He waits, but no other information is offered. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So you’re… sorry you had a bad day?” he says, and he can’t quite keep the miffed tone out. He’s not mad </span>
  <em>
    <span>at </span>
  </em>
  <span>her, but there’s an undeniable curl of annoyance at the concept of </span>
  <em>
    <span>apologizing for having a bad day</span>
  </em>
  <span>. He digs his fingers into her fur in a light scratch, so hopefully she knows he isn’t really mad at her. Her head tucks itself under his knee. He has to stop himself from shifting as her whiskers pierce his pants to prick at his skin uncomfortably. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No. It’s just… I had a bad day, and I wanted to… I just wanted to be…” She pauses, and then obviously changes what she had been going to say. “It’s a little easier to deal with in a different form.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kyo decides to push a little. “Okay, so a bad day.” He was petting her again, and he really should stop that, but no one else was home and she hadn’t asked him to stop. Her fur was really soft. He wondered if that meant her hair was just as soft, and he’s going to stop that train of thought immediately.  “I’m still not sure what you’re sorry about.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He might be bad with people, but Kyo knew how to deal with shy cats. He gently reached so he could hook a finger under her chin and scratched, trying to coax her out of hiding. It worked after a few seconds, her cat instincts demanding she move for a better angle. Tohru looked him in the eye for a second before quickly looking away, opting to stare across the kitchen instead. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry that… I just… I just wanted a…” Her voice lowered to nearly a whisper, “A hug? I guess?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She couldn’t blush in cat form, so Kyo decided he’d blush for both of them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She must have taken his silence for judgement, because the dam broke and a flood of words followed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not in a weird way, or anything, it’s just I thought it’d make me feel a little better, and you were right there, OH, not that I only picked you because you’re the only one home, in fact you’re probably at the top of my list of ‘people I’d like hugs from’, not that I have a list like that!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She spun around in her agitation and popped her front paws on his chest so she could talk to his face, forgetting her shyness in her need to make sure he didn’t misunderstand. It was a hopeless cause: Kyo had lost the ability to think rationally. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But I’m sorry for being selfish, and I’m sorry for being sorry because we talked about how I can be more selfish, but I think maybe this crosses a line? And I didn’t even ask, I didn’t even know I was going to do it until I saw you and I kind of just moved without realizing and, and, and I’ll stop talking now.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She moved just as quickly to flop back into his lap, head firmly hidden under his leg and body tucked up to be as small and unobtrusive as possible. He moved in a daze to pet gently across her back, pure autopilot, to encourage her to unball. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Of the many roles Kyo has held over the years (mostly </span>
  <em>
    <span>unwanted, problem, </span>
  </em>
  <span>so on and so forth), he had almost never taken on the role of </span>
  <em>
    <span>comforter. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Well, no, there had been the time she’d been mourning her mother’s death, but that had been a shared duty with Yuki, and they hardly did more than just watch tv and play silly card games with Tohru until her laughs stopped sounding watery. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He spends a few more moments feeling impossibly out of his depth, because Tohru was important (he could admit that, at the very least), and he did not want to screw this up. While he’d been lost in thought, Tohru had slowly loosened up and spread out to fill his entire lap. She seemed more relaxed, pressing back into his hand as it kept up a steady stroking motion, but she still wouldn’t turn around to face him. He wracked his brain for the types of things people usually said to comfort someone. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Kyo opened his mouth, what came out was “I don’t have anything against hugging you, you know.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He immediately wanted to grab the words out of the air and shove them right back in the mental box he kept those kinds of thoughts in. That was way too genuine, and not at all the generic comforting phrase he had been going for. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s weird when you turn into an animal.” Her reply was a little muffled by his pants, but he thought there was a pleased lilt to her tone.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I guess, but it’s not like I mind. I like… cats. And animals are cuddly, anyway.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They sat in an embarrassed silence. Tohru giggled suddenly. “You said cuddly.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, and?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s just… not a word I’d expect to hear you say.” Her head popped up, and she aimed a cat’s grin at him. “Cuddly.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He scowled and placed his hand over her face. Her giggles increased as he squished her cheeks. ”What, tough guys can’t say cute words?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He picked her up so she dangled from his hands, now outright laughing. Her paws batted at the air helplessly. “Sorry, I don’t know why it’s so funny!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her laughter sounded a little off, tinged at the edges with something desperate, but it was still genuine. A grin spread across his face in response. “Well, now you’re feeling well enough to make fun of me, at least.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He sat her down on the floor and stood up. Kyo wasn’t so naive as to think his job was done just yet, but she seemed to be feeling a bit better at least. Also, his butt has been starting to hurt from sitting on the hard floor. A glance told him that the rice cooker had gotten a decent way through its cook time. He really needs to get the rest of dinner going. Maybe that would serve as a decent distraction for her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tohru leapt onto the counter beside the cooker. “Um. I didn’t mean to make fun.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He waved her off. “Nah, I know you didn’t say it to be mean. Don’t worry.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She still looked a little bothered, but let it drop. She sat on the edge, tail curled neatly around her paws. It was extremely charming, and almost distracted him from the fact that she seemed to be watching his hands </span>
  <em>
    <span>very </span>
  </em>
  <span>intently as he pulled out more things to prep. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>For a few moments he thinks he had accidentally triggered her hunter instinct, then it hit him like a sack of bricks. No, Kyo wanted to hit himself, actually. He had wanted to know how to comfort Tohru, when she had literally told him what she needed in both words and actions. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Company. Contact.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tohru.” he said with a sigh. Her attention snapped onto his face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes?” She sounded nervous. Of course she did. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kyo patted his shoulder. “Come on, keep me company while I finish dinner prep.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She eyed his shoulder with barely disguised want. Still, she hesitated. “Are you sure? Won’t I just be in the way?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can handle it.” He flexed an arm and tried not to feel like a dope for doing so. He hadn’t trained under waterfalls for nothing, though, and the muscles in his arm flexed to prove it. “Think of it like extra weight training.” He’s immediately worried she might take that as an insult, but she doesn’t even blink.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In the end, it took very little convincing to get Tohru to jump up onto his shoulder. He almost ruined it by stumbling, and her claws had dug into his flesh in a </span>
  <em>
    <span>very </span>
  </em>
  <span>painful way, but Kyo righted himself and Tohru carefully moved around until she was relatively stable. She was considerate enough to jump onto his non-dominant side, so that helped a bit with the balancing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was still a disaster. Not only did Kyo have to keep walking around Tohru’s abandoned clothes (and he wondered if he could actually burn himself, if his face got any hotter from thinking about that), but he nearly cut himself while chopping up the greens for a salad, and Tohru kept slipping off and saving herself by rending his shirt to shreds. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She was very apologetic about that, but he pointed out it was just a generic around-the-house shirt with pre-existing stains anyway. She said she was still sorry, and he insisted that it was fine. He eventually slapped some dressing on the bottom of the shirt on purpose, just to show how very fine he was with this shirt getting messed up.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It broke the remaining tension, and they giggled together like they were kids again. Every fumbled vegetable or </span>
  <em>
    <span>wap </span>
  </em>
  <span>of her tail against his head had them in peals of laughter. The mood in the kitchen turned bright and airy. She’s a warm, soft presence beside him, and Kyo realizes he’d been missing something he didn’t even know he wanted.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Best of all, the light was back in Tohru’s eyes. He never did figure out what, exactly, made this day so bad, but that was fine. As long as she was feeling better, that’s all he really cared about. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shockingly, Kyo did manage to finish dinner with his tag-along. He did end up leaving out the meat portion of the meal, but Tohru didn’t need to know that. They could all enjoy a vegan dinner. Yuki at least wouldn’t say anything, but Kyo would keep a spare shoe nearby to deck Shigure with if he complained too much. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’s checking the rice really did cook (their rice cooker could be temperamental, sometimes) when a furry head presses itself into his cheek and rubs aggressively, twice. Tohru jumped down onto the counter then the floor, only tripping over herself once. She trotted over to her clothes and sat next to them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He watches her path in a slight daze. Did she just… was that a scent marking? Did Tohru just scent mark him? He wonders if she even knows that about cats, but he doesn’t ask because he doesn’t know what he’ll do if she said yes. A pleased feeling has curled up in his chest at the idea that she’d willingly claim him as hers, and she’s talking now and he needs to stop thinking about that. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kyo? Thanks for helping me out.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kyo waved a hand in the air, purposefully trying to seem dismissive. “Yeah, no problem! Anytime.” He’d probably have a heart attack if this happened again anytime soon, cat form or not. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m just going to head up before the transformation wears off, but I’ll come back down when I’m done.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Oh, </span>
  </em>
  <span>yeah, yup, she should get moving then. Kyo schooled his features into neutrality and </span>
  <em>
    <span>forced </span>
  </em>
  <span>the rising blush back down. “Okay! Yeah, that’s fine. Dinner is, uh, ready, so we can eat when you’re back.” His mouth was dry. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She flicked her tail at him, then tried to gather her clothes in her mouth. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh. Do you need some help with that?” He didn’t really want to help with that, but she was clearly struggling to grab it all at once. Kyo could be mature about helping a girl carry her clothes and not think about it too much. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>No fanks</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” she got out around a mouthful of fabric. Her voice was a little higher than normal. He cleared his throat and nodded, and turned all of his attention on fluffing the rice with a spoon. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She apparently got all of them, because near silent cat feet padded out of the kitchen, presumably heading upstairs to her room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With her out of the room, he gave up on trying to seem calm and collected. He held his face in his hands. There was a warm feeling starting in his chest and radiating out to his entire body.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Cuddling. With Tohru. Jeeze. He peeked through his fingers at the rice. Once it was eaten, the only witness to his feelings would be gone. Thank goodness.    </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A minute later, Tohru’s voice called back down the stairs, sheepish. “Ah, Kyo? My door is shut…”  </span>
  <em>
    
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>He lowered his head until it hit the counter and shut his eyes, letting the cool surface soak away some of the heat from his face. “I’ll be right there.” </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. The Sick Fic (TM)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>He’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>sick</span>
  </em>
  <span>, and its just a summer cold, but Kyo almost never gets sick and coping with minor irritants has never been his strong suit. It didn’t help that he’d rather die than let Yuki do anything to help him (and the feeling was very much mutual) and Shigure was on thin ice, at best, at any given time.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He absolutely, fervently does not want to admit that there’s at least one person he’d shove his pride aside for and let take care of him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Or, he didn’t want to admit it, but that was some time ago, when Kyo had more than two brain cells to rub together. Now, he’s not sure when he’s awake and when he’s not, and everything is </span>
  <em>
    <span>hot </span>
  </em>
  <span>and unbearable. On some (many) levels its his own fault: if he had taken it easy at the beginning signs of sickness, he might not have ended up in such a sorry state. But </span>
  <em>
    <span>no</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Kyo thinks, oh no, he’s a martial arts initiate, and illness is mind over matter, he can totally beat a cold with sheer willpower.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Life is covered in a muggy haze, and he’s openly moping that Tohru isn’t there with her kind, soft demeanor and soup. Good soup. She’d somehow make it so it tasted great but didn’t make him feel even hotter, he knew it. She was amazing like that. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He wasn’t even hungry, and if he’s honest the idea of consuming any food at all wasn’t appealing, but it wasn’t really about the soup. It was more, like, the idea of soup. What soup represented. When someone is sick you make them soup, and soup means love, or something.   </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There’s a noise in his room, and he opens his eyes and spends a few moments confused that they hadn’t been open before. It doesn’t make much of a difference anyway: he can’t get his eyes to focus long enough to make out anything beyond its basic shape and color. It’s not long before even that minor effort makes his head throb, and he gives up, already forgetting what it was that caught his attention anyway.  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He’s out again moments later, not bothered at all by the quiet </span>
  <em>
    <span>click </span>
  </em>
  <span>of his door shutting.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>~ ~ ~ ~ ~ </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He comes back to the sensation of something blessedly cool being pressed to his forehead. After a few false starts, Kyo gets control over his eyes and slits them open. It was hard to focus, doubly so with a rag crossing his vision on and off. Determined squinting won him the rare sight of a grim-looking Tohru, her lips set in a worried frown.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He focused for too long on her mouth. That expression didn’t belong on her face. He wanted to lift a hand and wipe it away, but his arms wouldn’t respond correctly. Just trying to lift them up made his muscles ache in a way he hadn’t felt since he had spent a week punching trees to build up strength.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He gives up trying and contents himself with trying to will it away by force of staring. Her gaze dips down to his own and Tohru jumps when their eyes meet. “Oh, Kyo, uh, I’m sorry for coming in your room without permission. Shigure told me you weren’t feeling well, so I thought I’d--” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She’s still talking, and the words are heard, but he’s having trouble parsing what they mean past the liquid heat that is his brain. He attempts a nod, hoping that would suffice as an answer. It must, because she continues wiping his forehead gently. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She’s very close, he’s suddenly noticing. Tohru is sitting just beside him, leaning over his head with her arm, and it’s… it’s rather intimate, huh. The downward tilt of her mouth has reversed, and she’s… It’s…</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There’s heat, and then there’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>heat,</span>
  </em>
  <span> and his brain had already fried a long time ago.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s nice.” he mumbles.  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That smile’s aimed right at him now. “I thought an ice pack would be better, but I’m glad this is working.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Nah’ that, your smile.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She flushes. “Oh, well…” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey, Tohru.” It’s getting harder to keep his eyes open, so he lets them shut. He tries to say something like </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’d make you soup if you were sick </span>
  </em>
  <span>but he’s not really sure if he got it out.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Laughter rings through his hazy dreams.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>~ ~ ~ </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The next time he wakes up he’s more together, which means he’s more aware of every little ache and pain in his body. Summer colds, ugh. He wiggles a little to try and pull his arm out from where its entangled in the blanket with little success. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Kyo? Are you with me now?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The question is surprising, and how did he not notice Tohru sitting right next to him? She’s standing now, coming closer to peer at him with concern.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Was I not before?</span>
  </em>
  <span>, he tries to ask, but he croaks instead, throat too scratchy and dry to form the words. It sets off a series of harsh coughs, and he manages to pull himself up on his elbows in an effort to relieve the sudden pressure in his chest. There’s a cup being held to his mouth shortly after, and he’ll worry about being embarrassed over being treated like a child later. Tohru keeps the water steady as he takes a frantic gulp, nearly choking on it. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It soothes the hurt over, and Kyo clears his throat a few times to clear away the remaining dryness. “Thanks,” he says. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No problem.” Tohru presses on his shoulder to get him to lay back down, and he obliges. His arms had been shaking from the effort of supporting his own weight for that long, and he curses the fever for sapping his strength away. A waterfall is nothing compared to the common cold. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Your fever’s gone down a bit, but it’s still on the higher end. I’ve made some soup, if you feel up to eating.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A warmth spreads through him that has nothing to do with the cold. He’s a little bewildered (and very embarrassed) that he finds himself tearing up a little at her words. He beats it back forcibly before Tohru can notice. He probably should eat something, actually, but right now the idea of eating just makes him feel more tired. “No, thanks,” he says, and then he’s overcome with the violent need to clarify he isn’t rejecting the soup wholesale, so he quickly adds, “but maybe later.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tohru laughs at his eagerness. “Okay, I’ll bring some up later then. It’s just miso, so it shouldn’t upset anything.” She’s kneeling on the ground along his bed, looking for all the world like she intends to stay there for a good while. Now that he’s really looking, there’s even a whole station on the floor: she’d made a nest out of pillows and a blanket, and there were a couple books spread out around them in a random jumble. A mug and a plate were set just off to the side, out of the way of any foot traffic. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And he’s suddenly aware that she’s probably been in here for a while, and he can’t remember the last time someone had cared enough to camp out just to keep an eye on him when he wasn’t feeling well, and he’s getting emotional again and that’s just unacceptable: Tohru cannot know he </span>
  <em>
    <span>feels soft. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay, get out now.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It’s an absolute miracle that she doesn’t deflate under his words. If anything, she puffs a little, apparently expecting this resistance and ready with an argument. “Nope! My only plans for today were to study a bit, and I can do that and look after you at the same time.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t want you to catch whatever I have. Go on, out.” That’s at least half true, he figures, which is an improvement on his usual blurting. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m not worried about that. I’m more worried about you.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It’s pathetic how nice it makes him feel to hear that. He hopes it isn’t showing on his face. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, I </span>
  <em>
    <span>am</span>
  </em>
  <span> worried about it.” Too honest, deflect, quick. “If we’re sick at the same time, the house will get loaded with trash again.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, that’s… I’m sure Shigure and Yuki would try their best.” Then an odd look crossed her face, like something had just occurred to her. “It’s not a problem if I can’t get sick, right?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Unless you have a super-immune system I don’t know about, but seeing as you had that stuffy nose last month, I doubt you do.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I think there’s a way around it. Excuse me,” she says, and then she’s hovering over him, slowly leaning down, and then she’s carefully laid her upper body across his.  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His fever-addled brain could only come up with a bland ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>what’. </span>
  </em>
  <span>There was a second where he could feel her laying against him, mindfully holding some of her weight on her arms along his sides, effectively covering the entirety of his self with her body. It was a gentle, comforting weight. He’s struck by a sense of deja-vu, the thought of Tohru as a protective force familiar, and there’s a memory just out of reach there, gone before he can reach for it. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He had that precious, amazing second of Tohru, then the tell-tale smoke rolled over him. For the second time in as many weeks, there was a cat on his chest. Kyo closed his eyes. Opened them. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tohru was purring. That heart attack would be coming any moment now. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He rocked his body from side-to-side with little real force. “Off. I’m gonna get you sick.” He’s feeling a little like a broken record at this point, but trying to think up any other excuse was beyond him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>In response, Tohru hunkered her body down in that floppy way that only cats could do. “You can’t spread your cold to a cat,” she said. She sounded so proud of herself for thinking up that loophole. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He picks his head up just enough to make eye contact with her. Tohru gives him a cat’s grin, unrepentant, and stares until he blinks first. Kyo puts his head back down with a defeated sigh. He couldn’t think of a single reason to make her leave. He didn’t want her to. He had appearances to keep up, though, so he said, “I’m not sure that’s true.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It is! Plus, cat purrs have healing powers! You can recover from your cold faster, this way.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s definitely not true,” he deadpanned. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, okay, I read that about bones, but if it’s good for bones then it should be good for other things too!” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She was still purring, the sound causing her words to have a weird rumble to them. It was extremely soothing, and he’s relaxing despite himself. It’s going to get too hot with a blanket and a cat, but that was fine. You sweat out a cold, right? Probably. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He tries one more tactic, because ruining good things was his specialty and he wasn’t about to give up on that just because of a cold. “How’re you supposed to study like that?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She shuffles her paws on his chest in a killer adorable move. “I can bat at the pages, or wait for my fingers to come back. Studying is more effective when you take breaks, anyway.” A yawn splits her face, and Tohru rests her head on his chest. “A break sounds nice, right now.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kyo officially throws in the towel. “Fine. Stay there. When you get sick, don’t think I’ll be placing towels on your head and making soup.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tohru purrs harder in response, eyes half-lidded and looking for all the world like she’s already falling asleep. If it’s an act, it’s a good one: the mood is infectious, and a yawn soon overtakes him. He’s tired anyway, so it’s not hard for Kyo to slip back under.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He fades in and out from that point, sometimes waking up to a girl reading next to him, sometimes to a cat sleeping on him, and sometimes, the times he’s not really sure he woke up at all, he feels distinctly like he’s in the presence of something Else entirely, something powerful but kind. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>~ ~ ~ </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shigure is a responsible sort-of-uncle, no matter what certain ungrateful teenagers would say, and he’s coming into Kyo’s room to drop off more medicine and tell him so. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Someone’s beaten him to it, though, because there’s a cat trying very hard to wring out a towel into a bowl that’s sitting on the floor. Tohru stares at him, clearly surprised to have been caught. Kyo’s old cold, laying curled on his side with his arm out before him. Between the pose and the way the blanket is flattened out, Shigure thinks, had he been a little faster, there would have been a cat laying in that empty space beside him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He’s nothing if not adaptable. He points at the cloth. “Want someone with opposable thumbs to do that?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She nods, fast and embarrassed, and sits back to give him space to join her on the floor. He’s magnanimous enough to work in silence, methodically squeezing excess water out and cleaning off Kyo’s face until the poor boy looks less sweaty and dying and only dying. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But Shigure is still kind of a jerk, so when he finishes he sits back and casually says, “Man, Tohru, wow, I didn’t think you were the type to take advantage of a sick person.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It’s worth the accidental scratches he gets from her embarrassed scrambling. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Writing a sick fic during a pandemic felt weird, which is probably why it took me literal months to finish this chapter even though its so short.</p>
<p>If it seems like there are unexplained concepts in here, thats because there are! Side-effect of writing the side stories before the main one.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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